Las Islas

We spent the past two weeks among the islands, ranging as far as Isla San Jose, forty miles north of La Paz. The shore of the Baja Peninsula in this area rises steeply into a range of mountains called Los Gigantes. The photo above shows the tiny fishing village of San Evaristo at the foot of one of these mountain peaks.

Mountains and islands both provided plenty of opportunities for hiking and exploring on land. We made many attempts to climb, but never got as high as we wanted to go - frustrated by the steep slopes covered with loose rocks, and by the fact that we can no longer dance from rock to rock like young goats. But we got some great bird's eye views none the less, like this one of Isla San Francisco.


We also found opportunity for exploring in the water. On Isla San Jose, at Bajia de Amortajada, we explored a maze of mangroves in the dinghy We saw a host of egrets and herons. The most amusing was this Reddish Egret, which did some strange jumping and dancing moves in the shallow water to scare up fish for his brunch.
Exploring the tide pools on Isla San Francisco, we found we could creep up and catch a good look at the Blue Crabs, which are both beautiful to look at and good to eat.

This was certainly the longest unbroken stretch of sunny, warm weather we have ever spent on 'Indigo'. Midday it was desert rat hot, but mornings and evenings were cool. The star show overnight was awesome, and the vistas created by the colored bands of rock in the mountains and islands were endlessly impressive. Along about the tenth day, we began to feel almost - spiritual? Then along came this sunset, which just plain left us speechless.